Return of the Emblem Paralogue One: The Travelers

[Phoenix]

The Word 'Caravan'

A young merchant woman named Greta was standing beside her family's wagon and horses, watching the road in front of her as business in Urden village went on as usual. She crossed her arms and looked out at the road leading out from the village and over the plains, wondering just how long ago their caravan had abandoned them. "They left without us ... they left ... without us," she finally vented. "Those idiots! What part of the word 'caravan' do they not understand?! Argh!"

"Grit dear, what's goin' on out there? Did someone leave?" An old man with a mint condition hunting rifle stepped out from the back of the wagon and practically waddled over to the woman. "Ohhhhhhhhhh. They all left. Well I told ya we should'a finished sooner. I told ya."

"Like we had a choice," the woman shot back. "And now we're up the creek because one wagon's just too easy of a target."

"Gonna have to hire some more swords, Grit, heeeheeeehee!"

"Please, just go back to minding the merchandise while I try to figure this out." Once her aging father was out of sight, she shouted, "Those ... stupid, greedy, lying sons of- ... urrrrrrgh! " She didn't care if he heard her, as long as he wasn't right in plain sight. "Why would they do something that stupid with everythin' goin' on right now? They couldn't wait a few more hours while we finished our repairs? Really? Aaand I swear to Wrath if they stole my mercs, I will hunt them to the ends of the earth!"

"The beauties are in here with me, heeeeheehee!"

"Never pegged them for 'mercs', but whatever. That's good ... I guess. Ugh." On the bright side, they still had their 'dancer' and the mage woman, on the down side, her father was still trying to get a private dance from the former and a massage from the latter. Of course if they were the only ones left then they actually had lost all of their mercenaries. "Pa, Shaun, I'm headin' back into town to look for our boys. Mind our stuff, would ya?"

"Got it, sis," a boy called up from underneath the wagon. What he was doing down there was anyone's guess.

"What're you-oh never mind, I'm goin'." Now I told them it would be another eight or nine hours before the repairs were finished and to do what they wanted until then, but I wasn't countin' on the others decidin' to just up and leave. Guess I'll just have to have a look around. Luckily this town is small ... With her plan set, she set off looking. Even the mercs we had won't be enough to hold off a large enough group of bandits. I'd better hire some more, huh?

[scorri]

Erion grinned to himself as he wandered around the town. Man, this place is easy pickings. I mean... I've heard that some of these towns are trusting and all, but seriously. You'd think they'd pay some attention. With a grin, he started walking alongside a well dressed man before stumbling over a rock in his path and falling into the man. Quickly grabbing a hold of the man's arm, he barely managed to keep the two of them upright. "I am so sorry. Please, allow me to buy you a drink. I should have been watching where I was going, and instead I almost knocked you over. I could have done any amount of damage." The man frowned at the young man and shook him off. "Please. I have much more important business than dealing with someone tripping. Just leave me alone and that will be fix any problem you might have caused."

Erion immediately backed away. "Yes, of course. Sorry again for disrupting your walk." Quickly walking down a side street, Erion grinned as he tossed the man's purse from hand to hand. "Well that was easy enough." Just as he was starting to walk onto another main street, he heard a shout raised up from the street he'd just been on. "THIEF! THIEF! HE STOLE MY PURSE!" Cursing, Erion quickly took off, trying to find some place to hide before the guard was able to get a description from the man he'd just robbed.

Edited March 26, 2013 by scorri

[Ether]

Well, some sort of commotion was going on outside the wagon... it involved some yelling and some cursing... still, looking into anything at all would be better than being accosted by this old pervert... his constant moaning that his back was in pain and was in 'desperate' need of a massage was grinding on Circe's nerves... and she was confident enough that there likely wasn't a whole lot around these parts she couldn't handle decently well.

As she stepped out of the wagon and saw the lead merchant who went by the name of Greta walking off towards town... and no other wagons in sight. The rest of the caravan cheating out on them and leaving would certainly be enough to rile the woman's temper to the state she had heard earlier, Circe reasoned, as she approached the merchant woman.

"So the others left? If you're going into town, I'll go with you... we aren't scarce for thieves here, it would be best not to leave you go alone."

[Eail]

Alphonse had been displeased when the rest of the caravan had left his group behind. That pretty much left... well, him to defend the people that he was with. Sure the old man might have a rifle but he didn't exactly seem to be the brave type that would fight tooth and nail. Well, at the very least that was better than having no support in case of an attack, and who never liked a little bit of a challenge anyways?

From where he was leaning against the side of the wagon the swordsman could easily hear the interaction between the family. Scowling a bit as the old man spoke like that about the young woman they had travelling with them. He'd teach the man a lesson or two if he actually laid a hand on the girls, maybe at the very least a stern talking to a bit later.

For the moment though it appeared as though he might be actually needed, Greta was heading off on her own back to the town and it seemed as though one of the girls had enough and was following. Two young women heading off on their own without any kind of protection? Unacceptable, pushing off where he was leaning Alphonse caught up to the women. Giving a nod, as he walked beside them.

Already the swordsman had his family's weapon gripped in his left hand as they went forward. Ready to be drawn from it's sheath in a moments notice.

[Phoenix]

Wagon

Once Greta and the others left, Shaun got out from underneath the wagon and patted himself off. "They really up and left? That ain't right. It's times like these we all need to have each other's backs, in't it?" Unable to do anything about it, Shaun opted to watch the wagon from the outside. He was short, being only about twelve years old, but he was still able to manage climbing into the wagon's front seat easily enough. From there he relaxed and waited around.

Streets

"I hire mercenaries 'cause I can't protect myself and my merchandise at the same time. I'm fine on my own but if you wanna tag along, I won't stop ya," Greta replied. It also seemed that Alphonse was tagging along. That just left her father, Shaun, and the dancer, Jamila, to watch over the wagon. She'd left assuming that was the case and so him being with her didn't change anything, and realizing this, she went along with it. "Well I feel as safe as the king the right now," she said with a smirk as they walked. ... has this entire country gone under or somethin'? Bandits runnin' all over the place ... dragons ... and even low lifes are makin' a comeback? Ugh.

[Parrhesia]

Wilhelm had come into a bit of a cropper yesterday. He was out of ale, and what was worse, appeared to be out of money to buy more. That was why he was sat on the back of a caravan going nowhere fast and was probably going to have nothing tougher to kill than a brigand. This was a useless, pathetic waste of time... and it had better bloody pay well.

[Ether]

So one of the fighters was still here at the least, one of the swordsmen.

"Still always best not to go alone, right? Get surrounded on enough sides and you can get overwhelmed, hell even a single thief can land a lucky shot." Circe commented, twirling her staff in her hand.

"If that happened, even if you killed the bastard after, you'd be pretty screwed without one of these handy."

[scorri]

Erion ducked into a shop quickly to try and catch his breath. Muttering, he glanced around the shop. A grin spread across his face. Perfect. Just what I needed to remain hidden for a bit longer so I can find some way to get out of town. Grabbing a long green cloak that was lined with a mottled grey, he walked over to the shopkeeper. Tossing down some gold, he raised an eyebrow, clearly asking if that was enough.

"Oh, uhm," the shopkeeper quickly counted the gold. "Oh, yes. This will be quite enough. Thank you."

Erion grinned at the shopkeeper in a way that wasn't quite comforting. "And it's enough to ensure that I was never here, right?"

"Well, I'm sure that I've never seen someone that matches your description here today. Not when I've been given this much gold." The man bustled off into the back of his store whistling a cheery tune. Erion quickly wrapped himself in the cloak and drew the hood up. Better that he get some odd looks for wearing a cloak than for his white hair to draw unwanted attention. Slipping back into the crowd, he started walking off in a new direction. Now to just find some way out of here...

[Phoenix]

Wagon

While Shaun sat patiently in the front seat, he noticed some guards. There were two groups of three, each converging to meet each other. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but before he lost interest, they split into three groups of two and ran their separate ways. "Oh this'll be good," he figured. He couldn't follow any of them but he could see a group heading down the way Greta and the others left, so he hopped down and went toward the back of the wagon to get a better view and keep an eye on them for as long as he could.

Streets

"I've got elixir for stuff like that," she replied, patting her hand against a pouch on her belt several times. "But thanks. Good to have options I guess. Stuff's expensive as hell and you can't find it just anywhere. ... so I bought like twenty of'em~ hahahahahah."

"Coming through," warned one of the guards as he and his partner nearly ran Greta, Circe and Alphonse off over.

"H-hey! What's the big idea, army?!" Of course she didn't receive an answer, and they kept on going. "Well dayum ..."

[Toogee]

Wagon

"There will be plenty of time to dance with the others, sir. How about we get back to doing inventory?"

Jamila was in the middle of counting their supplies, politely fending off requests from Greta's father for private dances. So far, her adventure had taken a turn for the worse. The rest of the caravan had left without them, leaving them with just one wagon of merchandise. The dancer would do what she could to help out, but Greta and some of the others were heading into town to hire more help. She hoped that on the way, they would gather some rations. Most of their food supplies left with the rest of the caravan.

After she finished counting the iron weapons, Jam decided to head up to the back of the wagon. There was some commotion involving a group of guards. Shawn was already there watching; he'd likely know more about it than she would find out.

"What's up with them?" Jam asked Shawn of the guard situation. "Hopefully, Greta and the others aren't in trouble already. We just got here!"

[scorri]

Slipping into an alleyway, Erion watched as a group of guards ran past him. That's the second group I've run into in the past five minutes. He must really want his purse back. I don't even know what's in it. Suppose I should look in it at some point. Later. When I'm safe. Walking back out into the crowd, he started walking in the opposite direction that the guards had run, subtly checking to make sure his knives were positioned such that he could grab them easily.

[Eail]

"I generally prefer to kill them before they can touch me. But a staff is always useful to have around. Just let m deal with any ruffians that decide to act stupid." The swordsman commented. Hearing the guards run up behind them Alphonse thought the trio was already under attack and about to unsheathe his weapon, before noticing the uniforms. "Seeing guards run around like that is never a good thing. Should I go ahead to check the situation?"

[Ether]

"Bah, don't bother. Guards don't care about anyone who isn't a noble or some other sort of mobile bank account... leave them to their business." Circe replied with a scowl as Alphonse offered to check what had the guardsmen so riled up.

"And you can stop acting like a white knight already bud... I'll bet I'm sturdier than you are anyway." Circe continued, quickly sticking her tongue out at Alphonse before withdrawing it, and continuing forward.

[roymbrog]

Outside the town inn a large dog happily bounded back and forth chasing a spot of light across the ground. Eventually distracting the animal with glare from a piece of glass became boring, and Nimoeph, the dark skinned girl on the steps, sighed and called him back to scratch behind his ears. She hated small towns, nothing interesting every happened in them. Except, something interesting may have been happening if the guards running around were any indication. “I wonder who they’re trying to find, Elrey?” The dog merely stared back and tilted his head. “Oh, yes, you can’t talk. Silly me. One day when I master mind magic I’ll be able to have a proper conversation with you though, won’t I?”

The inn door opened and closed behind her, and Nimoeph turned to see her current traveling buddy. Wearing various shades of dull brown that matched his hair and eyes, Rhoul was fairly unremarkable except for rather large bruise donning his cheek. That hadn’t been there when they’d arrived, she noted. “Well, that went about as well as expected,” Rhoul started, rubbing his face. “I couldn’t find anyone willing to hire, aaand apparently the girl I hit on was the owner’s niece. It’s probably best to just leave now.”

Nimoeph stood up and brushed off her green long coat. “That... looks rather bad. It’ll heal though, I'm sure,” she answered, wincing slightly. “We're returning to Lagar, then?” Of course they were. She and her dog fell in step beside him as they started down the street. The guards were still out in force, which gave her the bright idea of finding whoever they were searching for first. She was scanning the street ahead of them as Rhoul started ranting about something, perhaps the state of the job market. She wasn’t really paying attention.

“…I just don’t get it, ya know? With all the crap going on lately you’d think everyone would be clawing over each other trying to hire mercenaries, but instead we’ve been out of a job for nearly a month! … Hey. HEY. You’re not listening. What are you-“ A hand was slapped over Rhoul’s mouth before he could finish.

“Stop talking for a second. You’ve seen the guards running around, right? I believe I’ve figured out who they’re searching for.” Indeed, all one had to do was to search for whoever looked most out of place or acted most suspicious. Someone had just walked out of a dingy alley in an expensive and heavy looking green cloak with the hood up. It wasn’t particularly cold outside either, so if that wasn’t worth checking out she didn’t know what was. “You see the one in green?”

Rhoul caught on quickly. “Aaah, I see. I’ll catch you in a bit, then,” he said, disappearing down a side street. Nimoeph kept walking, a very obvious tail on Erion’s wanderings.

[scorri]

Erion sighed as he picked up a tail. Muttering to himself, he casually glanced behind him and saw a guy split off from the girl. Ducking down a side street on the opposite side of the main street, he quickly took the cloak he'd just bought and with a regretful sigh and stuffed it behind a pile of trash. Grabbing a handful of dirt as he did, he contemplated trying to disguise his hair with it but then sighed and dropped it. That would only make me more obvious. I should dye my hair some day... White is too obvious. Glancing behind him to see if his tail had followed, he pulled out a knife, twirled it once, and then hid it again with a quick hand motion. Maybe the fact that I'm armed will get her to back off. I'm not easy pickings. Ducking out onto a main street, he forced himself to walk along casually with the rest of the crowd.

Edited March 26, 2013 by scorri

[roymbrog]

Nimoeph continued following, and wasn’t particularly surprised when her target ducked into an alley ahead. She wasn’t being particularly inconspicuous. The good news was that meant this was definitely the right guy. As soon as Erion had gone out of view she ran to catch up before he could exit on the other side and get lost in the crowd. She managed to reach the alley just as he stepped out, catching a head of white hair before he was out of sight. Well he had ditched the cloak, but that shouldn’t make him harder to find. Rhoul was probably catching up now anyway. She forged ahead, continuing to follow Erion after spotting his hair in the street.

---

Despite what Nimoeph had expected, Rhoul had already caught up. As soon as he had ducked into the side street and away from witnesses he had scaled the closest building. The green cloak hadn’t been hard to spot from two stories up and Rhoul ran across the rooftops alongside Erion, careful to stay out of sight of both him and the guards. The thief entering an alley on the opposite side of the street posed problems, so he adopted a new method of following.

His technique hadn't been perfected in the slightest but it was good enough for this. Finding a building close enough with a suitable landing spot on the opposite side, Rhoul directed anima units along his legs to augment a jump across the street and hit the oher roof rolling. It was fairly conspicuous to anyone paying attention and not in an alley, but the mage figured he’d be out of there before any guards managed to scale the building anyway. He had to traverse another roof to catch up fully, but made it in time to peer over the edge and witness the knife toss. Ah, so he was armed. Rhoul’d have to fix that later. For now, he continued following behind until an opportune moment.

---

Once she’d seen Rhoul on the roof, Nimoeph dropped all subtlety and began running after Erion. “Hey, you! I need to talk to you!” She might not be able to out run him, but she was nothing if not prepared. Elrey continued bounding behind her. What fun! His master didn’t take him for runs often, the lazy bum.

[Eail]

"True enough I suppose..." Alphonse trailed off as he watched the guards continue on their way. That situation still didn't seem very comforting though, it couldn't have been a training exercise with so few, so what was it....

Yet it seemed they weren't done talking yet "Protecting people is what I do, and this group, no matter how small, is who I'm supposed to protect.... I still feel bad about leaving the other girl back there with the old man. No offence to you Miss Greta."

Edited March 27, 2013 by Eail

[scorri]

Erion sighed. Well now, not stopping would be worse then continuing. Hmm, that friend of hers is probably already somewhere else around here. She's clearly meant to be the obvious one. Otherwise she would have never called out to me like that. Continuing to stroll for a little bit, he subtly glanced around, but didn't see the man he'd seen split off before. Hmm that means he's either better than me or he's on the roof. Ugh, here I was thinking I'd have an easy day, only needing to avoid guards. This'll be interesting I suppose. Turning around, he made eye contact with the woman following him, winked, and casually strolled into the next side street over he found. Hopefully that would put off her friend for long enough for him to deal with things. Quickly stashing the stolen purse in a pouch strapped to his leg, he drew one of his non-poisonous knives (no need to get nasty right off the bat) and casually leaned against the wall, keeping an eye on his surroundings while he waited for his pursuer to catch up.

[Phoenix]

Wagon

"Looks like someone's about to get quite a beatin', Shaun answered Jamila. "I'd go have a look, but Sis told me to mind the wagon, so ... mindin' the wagon," he added with a sigh.

Streets

"Nah, you stay here with us. You're the armed escort, not the scout. Hmm ... remind me to hire one of those while we're out, by the way. Less likely to get caught with our pants down that way," Greta replied to Alphonse. "And I'll bet I'm sturdier'n both of ya," Greta tossed in afterward, another smirk visible on her face.

[Ether]

"Heh, one of the reasons I don't wear pants, no chance to be caught like that~" Circe replied with a giggle, pulling her cloak tighter about her in a teasing fashion.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter what the guards are after, it's not our business. Our business is finding more people since our old ones rode off on us."

[roymbrog]

…What. Did he just wink at her? He obviously had something up his sleeve, or... something. Nimoeph wasn’t sure, but slowed down and followed him into the next alley anyway. “Hi, how are you? Doing well?” she asked pleasantly. “The guards are certainly out in force today, aren’t they? Think you could use some help? I can orchestrate distractions of all kinds, if you’re interested.”

Rhoul was busy climbing down the streetside wall on the opposite side of the building. While the surprise of jumping down on someone would have been hilarious, doing it from two stories up would surely be hell on his legs. They didn’t need any more abuse today.

[scorri]

"Mmm, I'm certain I have no idea what you mean. I would certainly never be afraid of any lousy town guards. They don't even know where to look for whoever they're searching for. Now you though... you have an eye. Well, an eye for the obvious anyways. It's not especially hard to notice someone who's doing the bare minimum to escape notice. I mean, really, if the town guard had any sense at all, they'd have grabbed me as soon as I ducked down that first alley in my cloak. Hmm, shame about that cloak though. It was quite nice. Any chance you or your friend grabbed it for me? Where is he by the way? Presumably sneaking around the other side such that you two have trapped me in this alley. Well, I suppose you are entitled to do that. After all, I'm sure if you turn me in to the town guards they'll totally thank you and let you share in the reward from the man who was robbed. Or, wait, no, they'll probably send you on your way with nothing. So, really, it seems like you have no need to keep on following me. Unless you're looking for a way out of town too...?" He grinned, idly spinning his dagger, keeping an eye on the other end of the alley.

[roymbrog]

“No, I didn’t get your cloak. Though now that you mention it, I might just do that later,” she said, idly tapping her chin. “I think you’ve got me pegged all wrong though, unfortunately. When did I ever say anything about turning you in? I was simply offering to assist you.”

It was about then that Rhoul rounded the edge of the building rather nonchalantly for one who’d just spent the last few minutes running across town. “Glad you could make it! I was beginning to worry,” she called cheerfully. “I’m afraid he doesn’t want our help, though.”

“Oh? Well, to each their own, I suppose,” he said, walking closer. “If you don’t mind handing over whatever it was that you stole, we’ll just be on our way, eh?”

[Toogee]

Chuck Wagon

"Come on now," Jamila said in a cheerful manner. "If we ran off, who knows what would happen to the wagon. We have a pretty important job here!" In the back of her mind, Jam knew the real reason they were left behind: they were the youngest and thus could not be risked in the dangerous streets of the nearby town. That wouldn't do much to cheer Shawn up though. That didn't mean that they couldn't make the most of the situation. The dancer grabbed a small beanbag from the inventory and walked to an open space near the wagon.

"Watch this," Jamila said to Shawn. She tossed the beanbag into the air and watched it fall in front of her. At the right moment, the dancer kicked it back up with her right knee. As it came down again, she did the same with her left. With natural agility, Jamla was able to successfully juggle the beanbag with her knees, good practice for her stamina during dances. A particularly powerful kick sent the beanbag over her head. Jamila used the sole of her sandal to catch it, balancing it for a few seconds before sending it back into the air. Jamila caught it in her hands and sent the bag straight for Shawn.

"Catch!" she shouted as the toy came hurtling towards the boy.

[scorri]

"Hmm, well now. Your help is an interesting offer. That is, of course, if it were free. Which, somehow I doubt it would be." He grinned at her again. Just then, her friend appeared at the other end of the alley, demanding he give them what he stole. "Tsk, now, that's not very nice, is it? Trying to rob what I've rightfully stolen? So... I'm going to have to decline. After all, honor among thieves and such. Now, do be good little children and run along, won't you?" He hesitated, and considered switching knives, but decided against it for now. "Besides, you really don't want to get into a fight with me right now. I'm really not in the mood for it."